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Denver architectural firm Klipp will lead a team designing a new 100,000-square-foot building at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, the museum said Wednesday.

Klipp’s proposal was chosen from 17 bids submitted by architects across the country, the museum said.

Klipp worked on the museum’s renovation of Phipps Special Exhibits Gallery and related spaces, which was completed in September 2009. The new facility will be built adjacent to Phipps Gallery. Klipp’s involvement with the project will ensure design continuity between the two areas, a statement from the museum said.

The $4.4 million contract with Klipp was signed Jan. 12, according to museum spokeswoman Laura Holtman.

Also on Klipp’s team are:

• Jeff Kennedy Associates Inc. of Somerville, Mass., which will do exhibits, specialty programming and design.

• David Greenberg, founder and board president of the Denver School of Science & Technology and CEO of New Schools Development Corp., who is the team’s education strategist.

• EwingCole of Philadelphia, which has planned and designed other museums around the country, including work at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.

• Arup, a sustainable design and engineering firm based in London.

The new building will be paid for using $30 million in “Better Denver” bonds, approved by voters in 2007, plus $23 million in private matching funds raised by the museum, as required by the City of Denver. To date, the museum has raised $15 million in matching funds, which includes a record $8 million gift from the Morgridge Family Foundation that was donated in February for the construction of the Science Engagement Center.

The new building will be built on the south side of the existing museum and will be divided into two parts. Above ground will be a 40,000-square-foot, three-story building, featuring two floors of high-tech science activity areas designed for preschool through 8th-grade children, their teachers, parents and caregivers, including a science play area for preschoolers. The third floor of the center will include an exhibition gallery.

Below ground will be a two-level, 60,000-square-foot collections processing and storage area called the Rocky Mountain Science Collections Center. The center will house the 1.4 million unique artifacts the museum has in its collections. Currently, these objects are scattered among 49 storage spaces throughout the museum, many of which are overcrowded, lack proper temperature and humidity controls, and are inadequate to ensure the long-term preservation of the artifacts, a statement from the museum said.

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